‘A Remarkable Lie’: CNN’s Erica Hill and Dana Bash Set Fire to Trump’s Claim That 99% of Virus Cases are ‘Totally Harmless’

“A remarkable lie.”

That was how CNN’s Erica Hill billed President Donald Trump’s comments, during a Saturday night speech at the White House, in which he claimed that 99 percent of coronavirus cases are “totally harmless.”

Hill, Monday morning on CNN Newsroom, discussed Trump’s remark — which was thoroughly debunked by a number of major outlets — with colleague Dana Bash. A day earlier, Bash interviewed FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn and grilled him about the president’s claim. But Hahn neither backed up, nor condemned Trump’s comment.

“You gave him multiple opportunities,” Hill told Bash. “And [Hahn] would not defend or deny what the president said. And this raises once again an important question for the American people about the fact that the people who are putting out this information are not saying when the president is flat out lying!”

Bash detailed how Hahn avoided weighing in on the president’s claim.

“What Dr. Hahn was trying to do was say ‘I support the CDC guidelines,'” Bash said. “The CDC guidelines, of course, explain how dangerous this virus is, say that people should wear masks, social distance, so on and so forth. He was trying to go on that road as opposed to going on the road I was trying to take him on — which is, ‘The president said something that is a flat lie. Can you, as a medical professional, a member of the task force, tell Americans the truth?’

“And he didn’t back up the president. But he didn’t say he was wrong.”

“It’s astounding,” Hill added.

Watch above, via CNN.